the club

the hobbyist

i live in a cul-de-sac. i don’t actually live in it - my parents live in it. anyway, its a street where 20 years ago we had music teachers, rock climbers and flower-shop owners that is now a street of oil merchants, financial traders and IT consultants. people owned a property and were occupied in careers built around hobbies in well-defined communities probably working sensible-ish hours.

it seemed not too long ago, people built hobbies into careers so somehow managed to do so. but for the average joe, it seems increasingly rare to find someone’s nine to five to be their genuine would-do-this-forever passion.

so what can we do outside our nine to five and i betcha if its not netflix or shit youtube, we probably wish we could find more time for our hobbies. you know the same stuff that we bigged ourselves up on our personal statements.

chit chat aside here’s a few reminders about what your club can offer.

1. shared suffering

the library. the gym. the ward. groups where you just suffer together. but at the end of it, you’ll probably think this wasn’t so bad. and if you put a year into it, you’ll probably become a little bit more knowledgeable, a little bit more fit and who knows make a fucking friend

2. club mates & work mates

club mates are a different tier of special. you can rank your work mates by who’s good, who’s pleasant, who do you low-key fancy. but your club mates, its tangibly different - everyone’s got their own bit to offer. someone’s the jokester, the other is the single mother, the other is the divorced dad plugging in the miles and the other is the hyperactive teenager who still shits himself - its just a hive of characters.

3. the relationships

later on it won’t be the achievements that you’ll first remember - that blistering 10 miler that was talk of the clubhouse for a week (but actually was just 2 minutes) but instead the relationships. the indie band member that’s your fashion and vocal inspiration, the guy that coaches team gb athletes who reminds you to keep racing not just training and the guy that you wave off to uni like your proud son. these are the relationships that you simply just won’t find anywhere else.

an early pearl from nietzsche’s running diary, its best to ’treat your club like your wife not your wife like your club'

this wasn’t so bad

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